Author Archives: Keebug

I come from magical place known as Louisiana. A place where friends are family and where the men can often times out cook the women. Herein lies a recipe that encompasses both of these phenomena.

Behold! The mythical Eskimo-Coonass hybrid otherwise known as Pepe Hill. Renowned for his tight embraces, rapier wit, warm personality, and magical cooking skills. The photo above portrays him at his happiest, in his natural environment: smoking grill nearby, natty light in hand, big smile across his face, and those ripped abs just gleaming in the summer sun. Pep is my brother from another mother. Our relationship surpassed the “friend” zone long, long ago and moved directly into family. When this little blog was born, I just knew he had to be a part of it. Pep cooks Cajun dishes from the heart and anything you recreate from his kitchen (or backyard, or whatever random parking lot he happens to be set up to cook in…) is bound to be delicious! Trust me.

Today, you’re getting his world famous Chicken and Sausage Sauce Picante’ recipe. Pepe made this particular sauce picante’ with chicken and sausage but he and any old coonass will tell you it is delicious made with just about any meat, seafood and game included.

If you are anything like Pep Hill then you will have your ingredients neatly contained when preparing to make your dish. The container is a requirement according to Pep. Pep may be a tad OCD (ask me about how he eats his crawfish).

Cooking outside is not a requirement for sauce picante’ but it sure does make it a lot more fun!! At least this way you aren’t the bitch stuck cooking in the kitchen.

First things first… fry the bacon (1 lb). Because all good meals start with bacon. If you don’t have a cast iron pot, use any heavy bottomed pot.

While the bacon is frying, cut the veggies. Dice 1 large onion, 1 green bell pepper, and 4 toes of garlic.

Cut 4 pounds of your favorite chicken (bone-in, boneless, dark, or white) in one inch cubes. Pep likes to get whatever is on sale because this meal should be cheap AND delicious! Get one pound of Cajun sausage and cut in half inch slices.

Once the bacon is finished frying, remove it from the pot. See, now you have a delicious snack…

Slowly brown the sausage in the most amazing bacon grease on a low/medium heat…

Remove the chicken and boil out the extra moisture to get back down to the amazingness of… the grease.

Next up… fry 3-15 ounce cans of tomato sauce over a low/medium heat for about 20 minutes. Stir constantly because it acts like a roux (a bit of a pain in the tail but worth it). It will bubble, pop, and squirt…be prepared.

This is at about 25 minutes. Notice the color change. It also smells much sweeter than it did to begin with.

Time to add the veggies with another tablespoon each of Tony’s, salt, and pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes.

Once the veggies are finished add the meat and stir.

Add 2 quarts of chicken stock.

Once it comes to a boil, add 2 tablespoons of roux and stir. Pictured here is what Pep considers to be a tablespoon.

Now, take a big whiff!!

Let that simmer for 1 hour 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over warm rice with a side of warm, buttered French bread.

Thanks, Pepe! We can’t wait for your next guest appearance on The Fizzle! xoxox

I hate to be immodest, but I make THE BEST cornbread. Actually, I don’t give a crap about modesty. I’m just a couple steps above Kanye on the humble-chart.

I always thought I hated cornbread. I was under the assumption that it had to be dry and crumby and bland. I’m here to tell you all today that these assumptions are wrong. It can be moist, sweet, spicy and delicious. And even though it looks difficult to make something this beautiful, it’s actually pretty damn easy. Here’s how…

Your ingredients:

3 boxes Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix

3 eggs

1 cup cream-style corn

6 tablespoons of salted butter

2/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons sour cream

8 oz. cheese (I used white sharp cheddar)

1 large vidalia onion

Hot sauce

Salt

Crushed red pepper flakes

I included my cast iron skillet in the picture because it is a big part of this recipe. The heavy bottomed skillet will allow you to perfectly caramelize your onions then transfer your cornbread to the oven to bake. So, yes, for this particular recipe, the cast iron skillet is essential. Mine is 12 inches.

That being said, you can leave out the “WOW” factor of the upside-down onion cornbread and simply create the cornbread mix and bake it in a baking dish of your choice and everyone will still think you’re amazing because you’ve just blown their minds with the best cornbread they’ve ever eaten. Just hope I don’t bring this upside-down number to dinner on the same night. Because this one’s SO much better. The sweet, buttery onions really make a difference.

Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Get yourself a big mixing bowl and dump out all three boxes of Jiffy mix. Some of you might think using Jiffy mix is cheating, and maybe it is. I know there’s great stone-ground cornmeals out there. Why, just right here in Pensacola, FL we have C&D Mill where CW and Dorothy Bruton, two of the coolest corn grinders you’ll ever meet, turn out every ground corn product you could imagine. And when it comes to grits, they’re the only choice for me. In this recipe, however, I just like the sweet flavor of Jiffy and the fact that it costs around 50 cents a box. So call it what you will.

Next, crack three eggs and add them in. Add a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce. I’m partial to Crystal.

Next, measure out a cup of creamed corn and add that to the party. Then you’ll need a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and about the same amount of red pepper flakes. I really think the pepper is important. It doesn’t make the bread too spicy for anyone to eat, but it does add a little, tiny kick at the end. So you get the sweet, the savory, and the spicy.

Now I add a couple of tablespoons of sour cream. It helps to keep it super moist along with all that creamy corn.

Now I grate up an entire 8 oz. block of sharp white cheddar. I said it’s delicious cornbread, I never mentioned healthy cornbread. Add that cheesy goodness to the mix.

**NOTE** I do make a “Mexican” version of this cornbread which is essentially the same. I simply substitute pepperjack cheese and add a small can of green chilis.

The final ingredient is milk. I used about 2/3 cup. Now get to stirring. Stir just until incorporated and be sure to not leave any clumps of cornmeal mix. That would be bad. Set aside.

Now for that onion. Vidalia onions are almost disk-shaped and have a tendency to be much sweeter. They’re grown in Vidalia, Georgia and are the state’s official vegetable. Who the hell cares, Keelea. You need one big one. Cut off both ends and take the skin off. Next, slice that onion into round disks about 1/4 inch thick, like so:

Over medium low heat, begin heating your cast iron skillet on the stove. Add to the warm skillet 6 tablespoons of salted butter. Once again…delicious cornbread, not healthy cornbread. Once your butter is melted and begins to get foamy, begin adding your onion disks. Your skillet should still not be too hot. You want these to caramelize slowly.

Arrange them as neatly as you possibly can. Think of this as a pineapple upside down cake. How you arrange these onions on the bottom will effect how your finished product looks. Mine never comes out perfectly, but with a little patience, it’s still a show stopper. You’ll have to quarter some of the disks to fill in gaps. Try to cover the entire bottom of your skillet in onion. That’s your goal. Here’s how mine looked:

Let those onions sizzle a bit over medium low heat–WITHOUT STIRRING OR MOVING THEM–until you see a bit of caramelization (see the photo on the top right). They don’t need to be cooked all the way through…the oven will handle that. Give your cornbread mix a fresh stir and slowly begin spooning it over the onions as they cook, taking great care not to disturb their pattern. Once you get it all in, you’ll notice the butter has risen up along the sides of the pan. This is good. It will keep the bread from sticking and help it to form a crackly crust along the rim. Yummmmm…

Now transfer the whole (super heavy) skillet to the oven…I recommend using two hands…and let it bake for about 35 minutes at 400 degrees. Your finished cornbread should be golden on top, crusty around the edges, and have no jiggle in the center. Basically, it will look just like this:

You’ve got to admit, that’s a thing of beauty. Perfection, really.

Now, just to be sure, take a knife and work it gently around the edge of the pan, making sure you don’t have any sticking there. The butter generally makes sure of that, but sometimes a little oozy pocket of cheese will cause a problem for you. The knife will ensure you don’t have that issue.

Now for the scary part. I do this alone all the time, but I’m a cornbread flipping professional. At this point, you may want to call in some reinforcements. I’d hate for you to drop this cornbread and have to eat it off the kitchen floor like some kind of savage.

Find yourself a large, round platter. I happen to have a plate I use specifically for this recipe. My Cornbread Plate. It’s a thing. Yours should be flat and larger than the rim of the pan. Those are really the only two requirements. Now get yourself siked up. You can do this.

Lay the plate upside down on top of the pan.

Deep breath in. Pep talk. Deep breath out.

Keeping the plate firmly pressed to the rim of the pan, flip that sucker.

Now, slowly lift your pan off the top. What reveals itself is your masterpiece. Congratulations to you. You are a success in life.

I have never once been able to let this cornbread cool down before cutting myself a slice, and topping that steaming goodness with a pat of butter and drizzle of honey. It’s a meal in itself. Enjoy it in good health!

Let me preface this post by proclaiming that, no, I am not in any way Italian. In fact, I have likely never had Italian Wedding Soup made by a real Italian person. If it’s on the menu I’ll order it, and that’s how this recipe came to be. I ordered some Italian Wedding Soup one time in some random restaurant and thought to myself, “I can make this shit”. So don’t go calling up your Nona and having her rush over to correct all the ways I’ve gone wrong. When you taste this soup you’ll get how oh-so-right it is.

Now, let’s get started on your meatballs. These tender turkey meatballs are flavored heavily with basil and parmesan and it will take all you’ve got not to devour them out of the pan before returning them to your soup.

To your pound of ground turkey (use all white meat ground turkey for an even more low fat version of this soup!) add a tablespoon of “squeezy” basil. This is basil from a tube that can be found in most all grocery stores’ herb sections. I like this stuff because I don’t have to grow it or keep it alive and it has a pretty damn long shelf life in the door of my fridge. Tastes as close to the fresh stuff as you’re ever gonna get, in my humble opinion.

Next, you were probably wondering why there was a whole wheat hamburger bun in the ingredients picture. That’s because I thought I had panko bread crumbs but I was in fact, wrong (note the time and date, this doesn’t happen often). So, I used my food processor to grind up a hamburger bun for fresh breadcrumbs. Use panko or fresh…they’re lighter and will make for a much lighter and more tender meatball.

Add those breadcrumbs to your turkey along with an egg.

Now I like to break out my food processor to get the tiniest of possible chops on the veggies that go in these little meatballs. First, a small onion, cut in 8ths. Into the processor it goes.

Next, about 5 toes of garlic.

Then, a big handful of fresh parsley.

Now get your grind on. Scrape down the side and pulse a few more times. You’re looking for tee-tiny little pieces. Nothing so big it will take long to cook through.

Add all that aromatic goodness to your meatball mix and open your spice cabinet. It’s time to season. You want to add about a teaspoon of kosher salt, a 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper (you can use black pepper, too), and a teaspoon of dried Italian seasoning.

Now to that add about 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese and get to mixing. Now you’re ready to make meatballs.

I’ve done a lot of thinking about this and the best I can tell you is to make your meatballs about the size of one human testicle. You can see that my meatball mix made about 24 testicle-sized meatballs. Yum.

Heat some olive oil over medium/medium-low heat on the stove in a heavy bottomed pot (use the same pot you’ll use for your soup!) and add your meatballs in shifts. Don’t crowd the balls, folks. They need room to breathe. I did mine in 3 shifts. It’s a lot of ball work, but if you’re not already, you’ll be a pro like me in no time. Now just brown those balls on all sides and add them to a plate set aside (Not the plate with the raw meatballs. Jesus. Basic food safety here, folks).

Now if you’re good like me, you’ll be prepping and chopping your soup vegetables while the meatballs cook. I chopped about 2 cups of carrots and celery, as seen below. You know how chunky you like your veggies in your soup. Just chop ’em how you like ’em.

Next, 2 cups chopped onion and 1 chopped pepper. I like to use either red, orange or yellow. Today at the store, for whatever reason, the yellow ones were about 16 cents cheaper. So, after this, I’m headed straight to the bank, baby.

Next, chop about 7 toes of garlic and about 2 cups of mushrooms. I keep the mushrooms separate from the other chopped vegetables because I add them later in the cooking process.

Congratulations! You’ve completed all your cutting and chopping for the evening! And by now all your meatballs should be perfectly done and smelling your entire house up like garlic, basil and parmesan cheese.

Leave the little brown bits left behind from your meatballs in the pot and dump in your chopped veggies, with the exception of the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and add about 1/2 cup of white wine. Don’t go judging my fancy wine selection, here. Feel free to use any white wine that you would also drink…that doesn’t leave much out for me as you can clearly see from the plastic container with peel back, yogurt-style, foil lid. Let the wine simmer over medium heat for a few minutes and scrape up all the meatball yumminess that is stuck to the bottom of your pot.

After about 5 minutes of cooking, go ahead and add your mushrooms and cover the whole pot, leaving about 2-3 of space from the top, with delicious, homemade chicken stock. Simmer this for about another 7-10 minutes.

Now, let’s add some spinach. You’re going to add about 3/4 of your bag of fresh spinach at this point. Tear the spinach into smaller pieces with your bare hands. Grunt loudly as you do it in a show of strength. Stir that in and give it a minute or two to incorporate.

Now, add your meatballs back in to the pot. Also add any meaty juice that may have collected on your plate. That’s good shit. Let this all cook together over a simmer for about 10 minutes. You’re spinach will get all wilty and delicious.

Next, you’re going to add a 1/2 cup of uncooked acini de pepe pasta directly to the simmering pot. This tiny, ball-shaped pasta got its name because it looks like little peppercorns. They’re adorable and I love them. Cook the pasta for the recommended time on the back of the box or until tender, then add the last 1/4 bag of spinach, grunting loudly again to let everyone in the house know what a complete badass you are. If no one’s in the house with you, grunt louder so the neighbors can hear. Stir that spinach in and you’re all done!

Ladle yourself a delicious bowl of Wedding Soup and top with a little more parmesan cheese…because you deserve it. Voila!

I have a dark confession to make. At any given moment in time I have multiple bags in my freezer with the word “carcass” written on them. It’s a Dahmer-like obsession with rich and delicious stock…that good, homemade stuff that makes Swanson cry with shame. Chicken carcasses, turkey carcasses, ham bones…just because you’ve devoured all that meat doesn’t mean there isn’t still some greatness inside those bones. I toss my sad, little skeletons (sorry vegans…but, really, why are you even here reading this?) into freezer bags and save them for when I have an hour or two free to turn them into something delicious.

Tonight I was making soup, so I pulled a bag labelled “chicken carcass” out of my freezer and promptly got to work.

This super simple recipe serves as a delicious base for so many more main dishes, gravies, and soups.

After cooking your stock, let it cool and ladle it into quart sized freezer bags, then lay them flat to freeze for easy storage. Simply pull one out every time a recipe calls for broth, stock or even water and dazzle your guests with rich flavor. That’s right…DAZZLE.

To be more metal about the whole thing, consider labeling your stock bags “carcass soup”…just an idea.

Stock will keep for about 6 months in the freezer.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients:

1 chicken carcass (this one is from a chicken I roasted around Valentine’s Day)

1 onion

1 lemon (or not)

handful of carrots (baby or quartered full size)

bay leaves (about 4-6)

4-6 stalks of celery

handful of parsley

salt/pepper

Place your carcass of choice into a large, heavy stock pot. Like I said, this little chicken’s frozen and not looking too appetizing right now. Tossing him in frozen is just fine.

Dump in a big handful of carrots.

Add 4-6 bay leaves. I use bay leaves in anything with liquid. It’s just what I learned growing up in LA. To be perfectly honest, I’m not even entirely sure what flavor they add. Having said this, I remain steadfast that are imperative and cannot be left out. 😉

Now quarter an onion and add that to the pot.

Now’s the time when I quarter a lemon and add that to the pot. There’s some dispute over the lemon addition so if it’s not to your taste, feel free to omit it. I just think it adds a fresh, bright flavor.

Now all that’s left to add is your celery and parsley. Just shove ’em in there.

Now add a palmful of salt and a palmful of black peppercorns to season.

All that’s left to do now is cover it all with water, up to the brim, and bring to a rolling boil. I lay a wooden spoon across the top of the pot to keep it from boiling over. I found that little gem of a tip on a “life hack” blog. I like to read those to keep an up to date list of people who I think deserve to die for using the phrase “life hack”.

After about ten minutes, turn the heat down but keep your stock at a low boil for about an hour or until the water line has gone down from the rim at least an inch and a half or two inches. Then, make yourself a little setup like this one (always in the sink to avoid catastrophe), and slowly pour out your pot…bones, veggies, carcass soup and all.

The colander will catch the solids and leave you with a bowl of rich, delicious goodness that’ll have you ready to get busy cookin’ or get busy dyin’ (gratuitous Shawshank reference for no reason at all).

Not only are beans and rice a staple food in almost every culture due to the low cost and availability, but they’re also de-freaking-licious. As an official coonass, I’ve eaten a LOT of beans in my day and I can tell you we like our beans, no matter what kind, over a steaming pile of white rice and almost always with about half a pig in that pot in one way or another. Red beans, white beans, black eyed peas…I love them all, but my favorite bean is the LIMA. I like them fresh and green from the garden with that sweet lima flavor that screams Spring time and I love them in this recipe–slow cooked on the stove with pork sausage, ham, veggies and wine until they’re thick and creamy and packed with flavor. The recipe is cheap, easy, and will feed a truckload of hungry men. It’s a stick-to-your-ribs pot of deliciousness and here’s how you make it…

Your ingredients:

1 lb large dried lima beans

Smoked sausage (about 1 1/2 pounds of your favorite variety)

Smoked ham (here I used 10oz. of smoked, diced ham from my freezer)

Celery (4 stalks, diced)

1 large onion (diced)

5-6 toes of garlic (chopped)

5-6 green onions (chopped)

Carrots (12-16 baby carrots or 4 large regular carrots, diced)

Bay leaves

White wine (your favorite)

Seasonings

Time to soak your beans! A person with the capacity for forethought and pre-planning would soak their dried beans overnight in a big pot of cold water and when they woke up in the morning…VOILA! Their beans are ready to cook. Me? I’m an impulse beaner. I never know when my need for beans is going to strike so I usually follow the instructions on the back of the back for the “quick soak”, which entails adding your dried beans to hot water, bringing them to a rolling boil for exactly 2 minutes, removing them from the heat, and covering them for an hour. Whatever kind of beaner you are, the pre-soak is an essential step and cannot be skipped.

Your beans will start off looking something like the picture on the left, and when they’re done soaking and ready to cook, they’ll look like the photo on the right:

While your beans are soaking and plumping, get started prepping your meats and veggies!

To a coonass girl like me, onions are a strong aphrodisiac. Rub a bit behind your ears to smell great for the ladies all day.

I used about 15 baby carrots here because that’s all I had on hand. They add sweetness and beautiful color to the dish. If you have regular, large carrots just use about 4. Whatever size you’re using, quarter the carrot before chopping so your pieces are small and will cook evenly.

You’ll need about 4 stalks of celery with the leafy ends. Those leafy ends are packed with vitamins and nutrients that you don’t want to miss out on. Just kidding. I don’t know if that’s true at all and I don’t really care (note the amount of pork I’m about to add). But they’re packed with delicious celery flavor, and that’s what you’re after. Cut these vertically up the middle, too, so they’re about the same size dice as your carrots and everything cooks at the same rate.

Now finely dice some garlic, about 5-6 toes (my brother from another mother, Pepe, is who got me started calling a clove of garlic a toe, so blame that on him).

Now that your veggies are diced and beans are pre-soaked, drain your beans and sort through them. I have no idea what you’re looking for when you “sort” your beans, but every recipe says to do this so I do it. I guess you’re looking for rocks or gold teeth or something like that. Just do it.

Start sauteing those veggies in your fat of choice until they start getting a little translucent and let’s talk seasonings. Here’s what I think these beans can’t live without: kosher salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, thyme leaves, hot sauce, and a heaping tablespoon full of brown sugar. Brown sugar??, you ask. Yeah, dummy, brown sugar. I discovered how delicious the brown sugar makes these beans after using some leftover HoneyBaked Ham instead of regular smoked ham from the store and now I’ll never go back. Don’t leave it out. It makes a difference.

Now for the star of the show…the PIG. Add your diced smoked ham and sliced smoked sausage to your cooking veggies and let the smell wash over you. Breathe in. Exhale. Breathe in again. If there’s a heaven, this is what it smells like, folks. Yummmmmm.

Now, this is going to surprise those of you that know me but I had about a 1/2 cup of white wine leftover from the other night. I know! The shame! The horror! Pour your wine in over the top of this deliciousness and simmer for a few minutes, letting the flavor soak in while the alcohol cooks out. Then to that, I added a few chicken bouillon cubes. I added bouillon cubes because all my stock was frozen and I was too lazy to defrost it. But feel free to use stock in the place of water in this recipe.

Now add your beans (sans rocks and gold teeth) back to the pot and cover with water. It’ll look like this and you’ll want to eat it but WAIT…you’ve got a while to go, my friend.

Now’s the time when you have to remember that “patience is a virtue” and “good things come to those who wait” and all that other crap. It’s worth it. I promise. Let that goodness come to a slow boil then turn it down to a low simmer. Cook uncovered for what seems like forever. This pot took me about 3 hours…the 3 longest hours of my life. You’re after a creamy consistency and you need to get there like the tortoise, slow and steady. Return to your pot every 30 minutes or so to give it a good stir, making sure nothing is sticking to the bottom. Turn your heat down if you experience any sticking. You’re looking for the liquid to cook out of your pot, and you’ll notice the water line will keep going down after each break between stirs. Now’s the time to taste and reseason as needed. Think you have too much water? Scoop some out. Think you need more water? Add some in. This is not rocket surgery, people, it’s a pot of beans.

The photo on your left is about an hour in to cooking. The photo on your right is your goal. See how creamy and delicious those beans look? See how much liquid has cooked down at the pot’s rim? That’s what you’re after.

You’re only next step is to make yourself some white rice, serve a steaming helping into a bowl, and pour these delicious, spicy, porky lima beans all over the top. Now you’re eating like a Cajun, baby.